Page 136 of Forbidden

“The baron was much put out by having to marry his daughter to a Saxon,” Dominic said neutrally.

“Then the baron may be pleased to get his daughter back.”

“If Duncan jilts Ariane, he will have no means of supporting the knights he must have to hold Stone Ring Keep,” Dominic said flatly. “And I, along with my unruly vassal, would suffer the displeasure of both the King of England and the King of Normandy.”

“All this,” Meg said quietly, “at a time when the last of the warriors you sent with Duncan are only now straggling back to Blackthorne Keep on foot, muttering about lightning from a clear sky that drove their horses mad.”

“Are you quite certain,” Dominic asked Simon, “that Duncan hasn’t forsworn himself and cast his lot with Erik?”

“Never!” Meg said before anyone could speak.

“That is what I feared at first,” Simon said calmly. “It would have explained much.”

“And?” Dominic asked.

“Rather quickly, I decided it wasn’t a simple matter of betrayal. If it had been, Duncan would have given me away to Sir Erik.”

Sven nodded, silently agreeing. “It would have meant Simon’s death.”

“So you decided he was bewitched,” Meg said, “and truly didn’t know you.”

“Yes. What else could it be?”

“Sometimes,” Meg said, “a man who is kicked in the head by a horse or hit with a battle hammer…if they survive, sometimes such men lose all knowledge of themselves for a time.”

“How long?” Dominic asked sharply.

“Sometimes days. Sometimes months. Sometimes…forever.”

Sven crossed himself and muttered, “You call it accident. I call it Satan, who knows more disguises than I do.”

“Truly?” Simon asked innocently. “A bemusing thought.”

Dominic ignored them and looked at Meg.

“What do you say, Glendruid healer?” he asked.

“I can’t know whether it is accident or bewitchment until I see Duncan.”

“While Duncan and I fought—,” Simon began.

“You fought?” Meg asked, appalled. “Why?”

“Sir Erik wanted to know the temper of the two new warriors he had found,” Simon said dryly. “So Duncan and I fought to display our skills with the sword.”

Dominic’s smile was as thin as the edge of a dagger.

“I would like to have seen that,” he said. “Your quickness against his strength.”

Simon’s black eyes gleamed with laughter and a warrior’s love of testing himself against another warrior’s skill.

“It was like fighting you,” Simon admitted, “but every bruise was rewarded by the certainty that Duncan hadn’t betrayed his oath of fealty to you.”

“How so?”

“When I said the words ‘Blackthorne Keep,’ Duncan faltered as though at a blow. For an instant the darkness in his eyes lifted and he almost knew me.”

“What happened next?” Meg asked intently.